More and more devices are being replaced with electronic and electro-mechanical devices of ever increasing complexity. This is especially true in the hospitals of today with large arrays of autonomous and semiautonomous electronic devices being found in operating rooms, interventional suites, intensive care wards, emergency rooms, and the like. For example, glass and mercury thermometers are being replaced with electronic thermometers, intravenous drip lines now include electronic monitors and flow regulators, and traditional hand-held surgical instruments are being replaced by computer-assisted medical devices.
A common improvement in many of these devices is the replacement of largely mechanical device controls with hybrid electro-mechanical controls that provide drive-by-wire functionality. Rather than rely on an arrangement of mechanical parts including linkages, pivots, springs, and/or the like, these hybrid electro-mechanical controls monitor an input mechanism, such as a dial, joy stick, switch, articulated arm, and/or the like, to receive commands from an operator. Changes in the input device are converted to input electrical signals that are passed to a control system for processing. The processed input electrical signals are used to determine output electrical signals that become control signals for one or more corresponding actuators. In this way, the operator controls the behavior of the electro-mechanical device indirectly through the processing performed by the control system.
This approach allows for added flexibility in how the electro-mechanical device can be operated. Not only can the parameters and/or algorithms of the control system be adjusted to change the behavior of the electro-mechanical device, but the lesser reliance on potentially complex linkages, pivots, and springs may result in simpler mechanical designs, smaller devices, and/or the like. In addition, the use of electro-mechanical controls may reduce the amount of force that an operator may exert to obtain a corresponding operation of the electro-mechanical device. Further, the use of haptic input devices allows the control system to additionally provide force feedback to the operator along with the control signals for the actuators.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide improved methods and systems for providing feedback to operators through haptic input devices.